i7 Builds - Specs and Results

[Skwaidu]

Originally Posted by songwritersoul

Pulled the trigger on everything. I'm excited, but nervous as I haven't put together a computer in a long time. Thank goodness for Youtube and forums like this. :)

Great! Good luck with the build. Just be methodical and read the manuals, and be especially careful with the CPU socket pins.

[TOM@METRO]

Originally Posted by songwritersoul

Thanks for all the info and input guys. Looks like there are two gen 5 pcie x16 slots and one gen 4. All 5 of the m.2 bays are 4.0.

My current, old, i7, ddr3 and sata ssd rig was a big improvement over my previous rig in boot up time and working with VI libraries etc. so I'm guessing this one will be a giant leap forward and future proof for at least a little while. At least it better be because it's not cheap and I bust my ass for my money.

Steve

Keep us up to date with your thoughts on the new system.

[ejinbc]

Yo

Just built the system shown in the attached jpg.

As far as performance for PT, wow. I went from a 3700K to an 8700K to this 13900K over the past 10 years. This is the biggest performance jump. I can now run full sessions (32 tracks with CLA Mixhub on each channel, NI Abbey Road Drums, Omnisphere, NI Keys, 2 x HVerbs, ...) at 64 buffer (Win 11, MOTU 1248) all day no issues.

I may never have to adjust buffer settings again - ~5 ms latency! No fancy optimizations required, I just upped the multiplier to 58 for all cores. Done. No affinity changes, no BIOS changes. Easy.

ejinbc

[BCnSTL]

Curious about fan noise. I tend to stay away from beefy video cards - not typically needed in a DAW and often a big source of noise. How is your build in this respect?

[Skwaidu]

Originally Posted by BCnSTL

Curious about fan noise. I tend to stay away from beefy video cards - not typically needed in a DAW and often a big source of noise. How is your build in this respect?

All of my Nvidias have been dead silent when idling (=DAW work or desktop, even running plugins and video), currently an Asus Dual RTX3070. If running games at 99% utilization it's somewhat noisy of course.

[songwritersoul]

Originally Posted by ejinbc

Yo

Just built the system shown in the attached jpg.

As far as performance for PT, wow. I went from a 3700K to an 8700K to this 13900K over the past 10 years. This is the biggest performance jump. I can now run full sessions (32 tracks with CLA Mixhub on each channel, NI Abbey Road Drums, Omnisphere, NI Keys, 2 x HVerbs, ...) at 64 buffer (Win 11, MOTU 1248) all day no issues.

I may never have to adjust buffer settings again - ~5 ms latency! No fancy optimizations required, I just upped the multiplier to 58 for all cores. Done. No affinity changes, no BIOS changes. Easy.

ejinbc

Looks like a great rig and glad to hear that you notice a dramatic increase in performance. I noticed a huge difference going from spinners to SSD's so I'm expecting an even bigger difference with this new system.
Question: Are you on HDX native and if so, what interface are you using?
Also, can I just use regular water in the cooler or do I have to buy special coolant?

[songwritersoul]

Originally Posted by BCnSTL

Curious about fan noise. I tend to stay away from beefy video cards - not typically needed in a DAW and often a big source of noise. How is your build in this respect?

I'm still waiting on some parts so it's not built yet, but I have a huge, custom silent case that my computer case will sit in. My home studio has everything in one room so I needed something to make my pc totally quiet for tracking vocals and acoustic guitars etc. It wasn't cheap, but works great.
The beefy video card is because I want this pc to be dual-purpose for video and audio. My current rig is decent at audio and terrible at video.

cheers

[Skwaidu]

Originally Posted by songwritersoul

Looks like a great rig and glad to hear that you notice a dramatic increase in performance. I noticed a huge difference going from spinners to SSD's so I'm expecting an even bigger difference with this new system.
Question: Are you on HDX native and if so, what interface are you using?
Also, can I just use regular water in the cooler or do I have to buy special coolant?

I'll answer again even though the Q was not directed at me - I'm running a similar setup but built originally last year with the i9-12900K, now just drop-in upgraded to i9-13900K.

I'm running 2xHDX and they work great, but they are quite unnecessary (I use them for 64+ I/O and very occasionally in DSP mode for some tracking, mostly Hybrid/Native only). The cooler in question is an AIO (All-In-One) so should include the coolant. (I went with air, Noctua NH-D15 as that was what I knew - I trade 5% of theoretical multicore Cinebench score, but it has no effect on actual PT use, usually not much over 100W for the CPU even in truly gigantic mix projects).

[ejinbc]

Yo

The questions...

Fan noise. Not an issue as I always put my PC in a closet or the next room. You can easily buy long HDMI cables and a long USB cable. I use sleep mode so I don't need access to the PC to push the ON button. Reboot on awaken.

GPU. I find the NVIDEA cards (Gigabyte) reasonably quite. I don't use it for gaming, but with video editing it can help. It's also nice to be able to drive multiple 4K displays.

Interface. I use a MOTU 1248. Had it for years. With the new system I can run 24/48 KHz at 64 host buffer. This gives latency around 5 msec. I have no problems with that for the things I do.

Cooling. On my 8700K build I used the Noctua 15. Big, bulky, quiet, good cooling. In the new build I went for an AOI solution that slightly outperforms the Noctua, but was easier to install and I don't have to remove it to get at other M2 slots/RAM on the motherboard.

Build. I got a motherboard with at least one PCIe 5 M2 slot for upgrade this year. Probably the only upgrade on this system that would make a difference. I won't need to upgrade the rest of the system until the 18900K

Any other questions, Gooooooogle is your friend.

ejinbc

[jello]

Its time to upgrade my 11 year old sturdy P9x79, i7-3930 pc. Its been a mixing workhorse for all these years. But I have to get from Windows 7 to Windows 11 asap.


What I have already, and will use in the new pc:

1. Soundcard: Avid native-pcie with omni
2. Dsp: Uad octo-pcie
3. Gpu: ROG-STRIX-GTX1060-O6G-GAMING
4. Psu: Corsair AX 860
5. Case: Corsair Obsidian 750D Big Tower
6. Storage: 2 mechanical drives


What I am thinking about buying:

1. Cpu: Intel Core i9-13900KS
2. Cooler: Corsair iCUE H150i
3. Mobo: Gigabyte Z790 AORUS ELITE AX ATX
4. Ram: Corsair Vengeance 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-5600 CL40
5. Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME (windows)
6. Storage: Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME (project)


Pc partpicker list: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/DT6RPX


Since I haven`t been building in years (this is my fifth build), and don`t know windows 11 in a Protools (mixing) context, I am looking for parts suggestions, does these parts work together? and will the mobo be able to house my three pcie cards?. I am also looking for windows/bios tweaks and software to monitor dpc, temps etc.